VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Guadalajara or Newport Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Guadalajara for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’s own page.

Choose Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Guadalajara 5, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Newport Beach 50: Guadalajara leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Newport Beach 20: Guadalajara leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Newport Beach 33: Guadalajara leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Newport Beach 20: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Newport Beach 15: Guadalajara leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Newport Beach 46: Guadalajara leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Newport Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GuadalajaraNewport Beach

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraNewport Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,536 m3 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre68 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraNewport Beach
City population1,385,62185,239
People per km²9,556622
Museums within 10 km174
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guadalajara or Newport Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.